Michele Harrington Murphy focuses on employment litigation and fair employment counseling of corporate clients. She has represented employers in litigation involving Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. She has been involved in all phases of litigation, both on the class action and individual plaintiff level. She has also represented employers in defending against charges filed with the EEOC and the Maryland Commission on Human Relations. In addition, she has counseled clients on labor-management relations issues.
Prior to joining Akin Gump, Ms. Murphy was a litigation associate in the Washington office of another law firm. She handled general commercial and employment discrimination litigation and did extensive pro bono work with the D.C. Bar Civil Pro Bono Clinic.
Ms. Murphy received her B.A. summa cum laude in communication studies and English in 1990 from Virginia Tech, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and named the Outstanding Student for the College of Arts and Sciences. She received her J.D. with honors in 1993 from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She attended UNC on a full merit-based Chancellor's scholarship and served as a member of the North Carolina Law Review.
Ms. Murphy is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland bars. She also serves on the American Bar Association's EEO Committee.